Amended
to postpone the implementation from February 22, 2011, to allow for further
evaluation.NCEP is targeting the last
week in March for implementation of CFS Version 2. A follow-up Technical
Implementation Notice will be issued announcing the exact date.

Effective
around the end of March 2011, beginning with the 1200

Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC) run on the day of implementation, the National Centers for
Environmental Prediction (NCEP) will upgrade the CFS. All components of the
CFS--the atmospheric model, ocean model, land-surface model, and data
assimilation--will be upgraded as part of this change.

Users
must upgrade their process of obtaining CFS data as there will be major changes
in content, format, volume of data, and data dissemination source with this
upgrade.

NCEP
will continue to run the current version of the CFS
until June 28, 2011, to allow users to transition to the new
CFS output.

A
3-layer interactive global sea ice model, as well as a global

land
data assimilation will be introduced to the CFS. The resolution of the
atmospheric forecast model will be increased from T62 (210 km) to T126 (100
km). The ocean forecast model will be upgraded from the limited area GFDL MOM3
to the global MOM4. The horizontal resolution will increase from 0.33 degree to
0.25 degree from 10 North to 10 South latitudes. Northwards and southwards to
the poles, the resolution will increase from
1 degree to 0.5 degree globally. The land surface model will be upgraded from
the 2-level OSU Model to the 4-level NOAH

land
model. For more details on the upgrades to the forecast model and products,
please check the CFS website at:

The
data assimilation for the Climate Forecast Model will also be upgraded. The
resolution of the Atmospheric Climate Data Assimilation Version 2 (CDAS2) will
be upgraded from T62
(210 km) with 28 sigma levels to T574 (27km) with 64 hybrid sigma-pressure
levels. The Spectral Statistical Interpolation Scheme (SSI) will change to a Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation Scheme (GSI). Satellite radiances will be directly
assimilated instead of retrievals. The Global Ocean Data Assimilation (GODAS)
will also be upgraded from MOM3 to MOM4. In addition, there will be a new
Global Land Data Assimilation (GLDAS) which will use observed Climate
Prediction Center (CPC) precipitation as forcing for the NOAH land model.
For more details on the upgrades to the data assimilation and products, please
check the CFS website at the link below.

There
will be significant additions to parameters in the pressure grib (PGRB), flux files (FLX) and ocean (OCN) files. In addition, there will be a
new file that contains parameters on isentropic surfaces (IPV).

Due to
the increases in resolution, there will be significant changes to the format,
content and sizes of all these files. The horizontal resolution of PGRB files
will increase from 2.5 x 2.5 degree to 1 x 1 degree and the number of pressure
levels will increase from 17 to 37. The size of the flux file will increase
from the Gaussian grid for T62 (192X94) to that for T126 (384X190). The ocean
file will increase from 2.5 x 2.5 degree to 0.5 x 0.5 degree. The new
isentropic file will have a resolution of 1 x 1 degree. There will also be an
increase in the temporal resolution of the output forecast data, from 12-hourly
to

6-hourly.
For more detailed information about changes/additions to these files, please
check the CFS website at:

in the MT.cfs_MR.clim or MT.cfs_MR.fcst directories. All CFS output, along with the climatologies,
will be made available only on the NCEP server and NOMADS. Beginning on
February 22, 2011, CFS output from the current day will be available via http
and ftp at:

NCEP
encourages all users to ensure their decoders are flexible and are able to
adequately handling changes in content, changes in the scaling factor component
within the product definition section (PDS) of the GRIB files, and any volume
changes which may occur.